Towards integration in defence

India needs a Chief of Defence Staff who will be the principal military advisor to the government

The Armed Forces have recently put out a joint doctrine, their second in 10 years, the first having been promulgated in 2007. This document has been variously described as ordinary, devoid of substance, innocent of realities and unrelated to the country’s strategic needs by many commentators, including a former navy chief who, as member of two high-level groups in 2001 and 2011, had been party to measures recommended to streamline the three Services to one common purpose. This writer was a member of the first of these. Nearly two decades after that exercise, it is time to review the whys